Scottish Executive

Animals

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many humans have been killed by animals in each of the last 20 years, which animals were involved in each case and whether the strict liability on owners placed by the Animals (Scotland) Act 1987 has reduced the number of any such deaths.

Iain Gray: The available information is presented in the table. There has been no significant variation in the numbers of such deaths recorded over the last 20 years.

  


Deaths caused by animals, Scotland, 1980-991







Poisoning by venomous animals 
  

Other injury caused by animals 
  



Total 
  

- of which dog bite 
  



ICD9 code 2


E905 
  

E906 
  

E906.0 
  



1980 
  




2 
  






1981 
  




2 
  






1982 
  




2 
  






1983 
  




1 
  






1986 
  




2 
  






1987 
  




1 
  






1988 
  




1 
  






1989 
  

1 
  

2 
  

1 
  



1990 
  




2 
  






1991 
  




1 
  






1992 
  

2 
  

1 
  






1995 
  

1 
  









1996 
  




2 
  






1997 
  




3 
  

2 
  



1998 
  




2 
  






1999 
  




2 
  

2 
  



  Notes:

  1. No relevant deaths occurred in years not listed.

  2. International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision.

Care of the Elderly

Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authority staff are currently employed in community care services for the elderly.

Malcolm Chisholm: Information on the number of staff in local authority social work departments by client group is given in table 4 of the statistical bulletin Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Departments, 1999 , published by the Scottish Executive in January 2001 and also available on the Scottish Executive website.

Dairy Produce

Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-6120 by Susan Deacon on 5 May 2000, when the Dairy Products (Hygiene) (Scotland) Regulations 2000 will come before the Parliament for consideration.

Susan Deacon: I am advised by the Food Standards Agency that the Dairy Product (Hygiene) (Scotland) Regulations have completed their three-month mandatory notification period with the Commission and now have the necessary clearance in respect of technical standards.

  Some revisions are currently being considered by the Executive’s solicitors and it is anticipated that the regulations will be laid before the Scottish Parliament as soon as these have been addressed.

Fisheries

Mr Alex Salmond (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it holds any information on how the amount of assistance received in each of the last seven years by (a) the fish processing sector and (b) the fish catching sector in each European Union country, including the UK as a whole, from (i) the European Union and (ii) national governments compared with the assistance received from these sources by the Scottish catching and processing sectors in each of these years.

Rhona Brankin: The Executive does not hold the full range of data suggested. Information is available relating to assistance paid from the share of EU structural funds for fisheries available to Scotland, and associated national public funding.

Hepatitis

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12882 by Malcolm Chisholm on 12 February 2001, when the review on whether there is a need to put a greater emphasis on hepatitis C in the services provided by the National AIDS and Drugs helplines will be completed.

Malcolm Chisholm: No date has been fixed. The report of consultants appointed to evaluate the performance of the contractor currently providing these helpline services should be available by the end of March. The report will inform decisions on the future direction of the helplines.

Housing

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12907 by Mr Jim Wallace on 13 February 2001, how many mortgage repossession orders were made in each court district in 2000 where the order was served on an owner who had purchased the property under the Right to Buy scheme, broken down in respect of domestic properties formerly owned by (i) local authorities, (ii) Scottish Homes and (iii) housing associations.

Mr Jim Wallace: The information requested is not available. Data is collected with respect to the number of repossession orders granted by the courts. Specific information is not available in respect of the number of repossession orders where the order was served on an owner who had purchased the property under the Right to Buy Scheme.

NHS Funding

Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total amount of resources transfer from health boards to local authorities was in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Susan Deacon: The information requested for 1997-98 is given on page 21 of NHS (Scotland) Summarised Accounts 1997-98 , published by The Stationery Office in 1999, a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. no. 11584).

  The information requested for 1998-99 is given on page 21 of NHS (Scotland) Summarised Accounts 1998-99, published by The Stationery Office in 2000, a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. no. 11585).

  The NHS (Scotland) Summarised Accounts 1999-2000 are not yet published. However, using the figures reported in the annual accounts of the health boards in Scotland, the total for 1999-2000 is £147,301,000.

New Deal

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-5973 by Henry McLeish on 18 April 2000, whether it will provide an update, up to 31 January 2001, on expenditure to date on each New Deal Programme, other than the New Deal for Young People, and the number of people who have taken part in each of these schemes.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland, it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.

  The expenditure on each New Deal programme in Scotland to January 2001 was:

  New Deal for Lone Parents: £7 million

  New Deal for Disabled People: £1 million

  New Deal for Partners of Unemployed People: £1 million

  New Deal 25 plus: £23 million

  (e) New Deal 50 plus: £1 million

  These figures do not take account of a proportion of the total costs due to time lags in claims from New Deal service providers and subsequent reimbursement.

  In addition, there are central running and marketing costs for each programme which have not been included in these figures.

  The number of people in Scotland who have taken part in each New Deal at the end of December 2000 are:

  New Deal for Lone Parents: 19,600 (to end November 2000)

  Figure refers to numbers attending an initial interview.

  New Deal for Disabled People: 2,300

  This figure only includes the personal adviser service based in Lanarkshire.

  New Deal for Partners of Unemployed People: 800

  This figure refers to those attending an initial interview.

  New Deal for 25+: 34,500

  New Deal for 50+: 3,100

  The figures for ND50+ relate to the number of Employment Credit Starts. At present, caseload figures are not published.

New Deal

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people, as at 31 January 2001, have obtained employment through the New Deal for Young People and have been taken on by employers not receiving a New Deal Subsidy.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government, which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland, it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.

  This information is published and can be found in the monthly New Deal news release www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00065-00.asp (table A5).

New Deal

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-5969 by Henry McLeish on 18 April 2000, whether it can now provide information, up to 31 January 2001, on the number of companies which have taken on young people under the employment option of the New Deal for Young People and what percentage of trading businesses this figure represents.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government, which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland, it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.

  In Scotland, the number of employers signed up to the New Deal at the end of December 2000 is 12,600; this represents approximately 8% of businesses registered for VAT and/or PAYE.

  Data on the number of companies which have taken on New Deal for Young People clients is not available.

New Deal

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have (a) participated in and (b) gone into unsubsidised employment from the New Deal for Young People’s (i) employment, (ii) full-time education and training, (iii) voluntary option and (iv) environmental task force options, up to 31 January 2001.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government, which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland, it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.

  This information is published and can be found in the monthly New Deal news release at:

  www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00065-00.asp (tables A0 and A3).

Parliamentary Questions

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S1W-11262 lodged on 15 November 2000 and why it has not yet been answered.

Mr Jack McConnell: Question S1W-11262 was answered on 1 March 2001.

Parliamentary Questions

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why question S1W-10428 lodged on 13 October 2000 has not yet received a substantive answer.

Mr Jack McConnell: Question S1W-10428 was answered on 1 March 2001.

Police

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the current numbers of police officers in Lothian and Borders and across Scotland as a whole are adequate.

Mr Jim Wallace: Decisions on the number of police officers in Lothian and Borders, as well as in other forces across Scotland, are operational and a matter for the appropriate Chief Constable. Additional funding provided by the Scottish Executive for police services is sufficient to enable police officer numbers to reach an all time high.

Scottish Ministerial Code

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the first supplementary answer to question S1O-2995 by Mr Sam Galbraith on 15 February 2001, whether the answer was in accordance with the statement in paragraph 3.1 of the Scottish Ministerial Code that the Executive will be accountable, open and responsive.

Mr Sam Galbraith: Yes.

Scottish Opera

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-2955 by Mr Sam Galbraith on 15 February 2001, whether the Minister for Environment, Culture and Sport will make a ministerial statement giving the reason for the decision to allocate an additional £1 million to Scottish Opera from the budget of the Scottish Arts Council.

Mr Sam Galbraith: I explained in my letter of 6 February to the Convenor of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee, which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre, that payment of an additional £1 million earmarked for Scottish Opera will depend on the company’s updated budget plan currently under consideration by the Scottish Arts Council.

Scottish Opera

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence it has received, or sought, regarding the issue of structural underfunding of Scottish Opera.

Mr Sam Galbraith: The Scottish Arts Council will address this issue in its consideration of Scottish Opera’s budget plans.